“With Apple’s WWDC only days away, tech pundits everywhere are speculating as to what the tech giant has in store for users,” Trevor Mogg reports for Digital Trends. “Citing ‘reliable’ sources in Apple’s supply chain in China, Macotakara said the company is planning to ditch the 11-inch Air (news we’ve heard before), while improving the current 13-inch model and launching a new 15-inch version.”
“That would leave its laptop line-up with 12-, 13-, and 15-inch screen options, with the recently launched MacBook offering the smallest display,” Mogg reports. “Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in May he expects the Pro models to stay at the front of the pack, while the MacBook will one day replace the Air entirely to sit behind the Pro. For as long as the Air remains in Apple’s line-up, Kuo said it’ll serve ‘as an entry-level model sold at low prices.'”
Mogg reports, “Macotakara suggests an August launch for the Air.”
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll take a 13-inch Air at around the same size as our 11-inch MacBook Airs. All Apple has to do is remove the giant bezel surrounding the Airs’s display.
Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Air’s giant bezel leaves LOTS of room for improvement!
So they intend to produce a new Air when the plan is to phase them our because they offer a totally disjointed and lopsided aspect to the overall laptop lineup and has done so already for over a year now. Confused? You will be. And even more if a new one is added and the name further enhanced as totally at odds with its original intension and logic.
I don’t think so, the 11″ Air is still immediately available everywhere. And besides, there’s a $400 difference between the entry level models. The 11″ Air takes up a different market segment, a lot of students buy it as an affordable Mac. If the 12″ MacBook becomes the entry level laptop, Apple will be pricing out a sizable segment of potential Mac users.
You didn’t have a 2006 11″ PowerBook. That computer never existed. There was a 12″ PowerBook though, and it’s last revision was January 2005. You could purchase it through I believe April or May of 06 when the original MacBook was introduced.
The 11″ MacBook Air also has an 11.6″ screen. The 12″ powerbook’s was almost the same. The aspect ratio was different, 1.5:1 instead of 1.6:1, but you didn’t lose any real estate on the display. And you gained resolution. And the MacBook Air was 13″ only until the end of 2010, at which point your PowerBook would’ve been 5 years old and incapable of running anything past 10.5.8 anyway…
Apple has a long list of Macs that need to be offered this year before the world moves to Hackintoshes. Not to mention all the other stale Apple products tucked on Apple Store shelves behind the piles of 3rd party iPhone accessories.
Kill the MacBook Air, replace with 12″ and 14″ MacBooks & add MagSafe and at least 2 USB ports, and preferably a video output that doesn’t require a dongle. Price it to move.
13″, 15″, and 17″ MacBook Pro with completely user-upgradeable and configurable hardware. Make it the performance leader
All new Mac mini. Make it competitive again — not smaller, just better.
Reconvert current trashcan Mac Pro into a mid-level tower with Core chips and upgradeable components.
All new tower Mac Pro with class-leading performance.
Mac OS with new file system and a realistic skeu-enabled GUI completely developed without the “help” of Jony Ive.
Mac OS Server
new Rack-mounted X-Serve
new family of ultra high resolution displays (21″ / 27″ / 32″)
new Airports & improved larger capacity Time Capsules
start over with the Apple TV, and make it 4K with some cool streaming/storage buffer that delivers the goods.
Apple — what takes so long? None of the above is revolutionary, they would just get you back in the game.
Yes, I’d buy a 13-inch MacBook Air with a thin bezel (same physical size as the current 11-inch MBA) in a heartbeat!
12, 14, and 16 inch displays.
No
They can call it anything they want, as long as it is 13-14 in, with an i7, retina and (very importantly) the battery life of the current 13 in Air.
So they intend to produce a new Air when the plan is to phase them our because they offer a totally disjointed and lopsided aspect to the overall laptop lineup and has done so already for over a year now. Confused? You will be. And even more if a new one is added and the name further enhanced as totally at odds with its original intension and logic.
What is its original intension?
You could cut the tension with a knife…
I’ll take a 14″ in the same footprint as the current 13″ Air.
I’d like a MacBook pro with 17″ screen and the latest Intel processors & real graphics please. It doesn’t have to be thinner than an iPhone, either.
The Air is the perfect airplane laptop. That is you actually do work like programing and such.
I don’t think so, the 11″ Air is still immediately available everywhere. And besides, there’s a $400 difference between the entry level models. The 11″ Air takes up a different market segment, a lot of students buy it as an affordable Mac. If the 12″ MacBook becomes the entry level laptop, Apple will be pricing out a sizable segment of potential Mac users.
I waited forever for my 2006 11″ PB to be replaced. Got a MBA and was disappointed at the shrunken screen size. I agree with MDN.
You didn’t have a 2006 11″ PowerBook. That computer never existed. There was a 12″ PowerBook though, and it’s last revision was January 2005. You could purchase it through I believe April or May of 06 when the original MacBook was introduced.
The 11″ MacBook Air also has an 11.6″ screen. The 12″ powerbook’s was almost the same. The aspect ratio was different, 1.5:1 instead of 1.6:1, but you didn’t lose any real estate on the display. And you gained resolution. And the MacBook Air was 13″ only until the end of 2010, at which point your PowerBook would’ve been 5 years old and incapable of running anything past 10.5.8 anyway…
Apple has a long list of Macs that need to be offered this year before the world moves to Hackintoshes. Not to mention all the other stale Apple products tucked on Apple Store shelves behind the piles of 3rd party iPhone accessories.
Kill the MacBook Air, replace with 12″ and 14″ MacBooks & add MagSafe and at least 2 USB ports, and preferably a video output that doesn’t require a dongle. Price it to move.
13″, 15″, and 17″ MacBook Pro with completely user-upgradeable and configurable hardware. Make it the performance leader
All new Mac mini. Make it competitive again — not smaller, just better.
Reconvert current trashcan Mac Pro into a mid-level tower with Core chips and upgradeable components.
All new tower Mac Pro with class-leading performance.
Mac OS with new file system and a realistic skeu-enabled GUI completely developed without the “help” of Jony Ive.
Mac OS Server
new Rack-mounted X-Serve
new family of ultra high resolution displays (21″ / 27″ / 32″)
new Airports & improved larger capacity Time Capsules
start over with the Apple TV, and make it 4K with some cool streaming/storage buffer that delivers the goods.
Apple — what takes so long? None of the above is revolutionary, they would just get you back in the game.
Apple have been losing me of late – spot on comments, hope Apple are listening.